Greatest Fantasy/Sci - Fi Series? (Books)

[General Grind]

If you are a seasoned reader in fantasy I would suggest Malazan Book of the Fallen. The author, Steven Erikson, is in my humble opinion the one who needs to be labeled the North American Tolkien (He is Canadian). His universe is very, very different to the universe of Tolkien, but it has the same depth and scope minus the language, and you can really feel the touch of history on it as Steven Erikson is an archeologist himself. The series are also immensely catching with characters that are larger than life but still very humane and interesting. Steven Erikson is wildly talented and he subtly subverts many of the tropes of fantasy in not so obvious ways while still bringing an awesome fantasy beyond anything I've ever read.
When I pitch it, I usually say it's the best from The Lord of The Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire mixed with anime-worthy battles and it changes you as a person. Okay, this was an obvious fanboy rant, but such is the life of the fanboy. For many, as is mentioned by the author himself, the Malazan Book of The Fallen is not their cup of tea, but if you are willing to trust the author and go along it will be a journey you wont ever forget.

I also support The Hyperion Cantos (the first two books) which is not just a great sci-fi, but just a really great story.

Ender's Game and The Kingkiller Chronicles are also really great.

 

[LorienvArden]

A classic for me is the Elirc saga by Michael Moorcock. It is a very strange story at times but brilliantly pulls of a driven hero ridden by self loathing and violence while portraying him as intelligent and imensly powerfull at the same time. If you can stomach episodic adventures into LSD inspired alternative universes you get rewarded with a truly truly epic ending.

I also enjoyed the Dragonlance books by Margreth Weis & Tracy Hickman. If you ever played D&D you can almost hear the dices falling between the lines. Raistlin, Caramon and Tasselhoff are propably the most iconic fantasy characters that remain in my mind. The tales also inspired me to actually write those adventures that I inflict upon my players from time to time into shortstories. From the feedback I got,I did a fair job with it so far.

For science fiction - yea the Neuromancer cycle from Gibons is a good classic that I pick up again and again.
Also consider Asimov's Foundation trilogy. It's not an easy read and may lack action for some but as usual for anything touched by Asimov, it raises questions and keeps the gears in your brain turning.

 

[Mugen]

If you like dystopian sci-fi, check out some Warhammer 40.000.
There's a (mostly) excellent ongoing series of novels, spanning 17 entries so far, called the Horus Heresy. It basically relates the events of Warhammer 30.000, presenting quite personal accounts from both sides on what transpired to make the far future such a horrendously crapsack place to live in.
If you're interested, the first three novels (comprising the first main story arc) are - in order - Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames.

hey that could be cool, i read Gaunts Ghosts a while back, and i always loved the references to the Horus Heresy in the Codex's, thanks!

 

[davidsoc]

I didnt read the whole thread so some of these may have been mentioned.

Asimov, anything by him

The Coldfire Trilogy By C.S. Friedman great series, interesting world and back story (shown through the prologues)great character development over the three books. HSe just put out a new on the Magister Trilogy....different setting, solid series not nearly as good as the first one.

Edit: see above the Horus Heresy Series mentioned...decent, not over in depth writing in every book, but picks out a lot of intereting stories that roll into the one major event in GW's 40K History. The Alpha Legion Book is a very good book, probabaly the best of the the ones i have read so far...i am through book 13...need to get the rest

 

[Drunkbot]

Larry Niven's Ringworld series is on the steep side of epic sci fi.

Isaac Asimov's sci fi universe full of robots and psychohistory is also grand.

 

[Soluncreed]

Read the Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook. Excellent series, giving the viewpoint of an average historian in the midst of powerful wizards. The Books of the North are the best in the series (also the first in the series).

Read it. My favorite Fantasy series.

 

[Mugen]

hmmm Dune could be interesting....i played the game what feels like a BAZILLION years ago now.

I adored the first book. The first book ever to have a scene that made me hold my breath in tension. After the first one the books become very esoteric. A bit too much for my taste.

As for fantasy, read the Kingkiller Chronicles. Just do it. Like, right this very moment. It's hands down, bar none the best fantasy series I've ever read, sadly just two books at the moment. Yes, I reckon that the Kingkiller Chronicles is even better than the Wheel of Time. Okay, that's provoking things a bit, seeing as they're both very different kinds of fantasy and I adore both, but I must say that WoT still hasn't (I've just started book 5) dethroned the Kingkiller Chronicles for me. Gods waiting for the third book is awful... To illustrate, this basically describes how the books feel:


I also second the endorsement of the Dresden Files. Jim Butcher is one of the few writers that does urban fantasy right, they're incredibly fun to read, and the character development is really good.


Also Terry Pratchett. That man is so damn funny.

Is the Kingkiller the series about, um lets see if i remember....he is like a bard, or a musician? at a college? i think i may have read the first one. i was really into it, im a musician myself so i could relate to alot of it. thanks for the reminder! (if it is the same series)

 

[Mugen]

If you are a seasoned reader in fantasy I would suggest Malazan Book of the Fallen. The author, Steven Erikson, is in my humble opinion the one who needs to be labeled the North American Tolkien (He is Canadian). His universe is very, very different to the universe of Tolkien, but it has the same depth and scope minus the language, and you can really feel the touch of history on it as Steven Erikson is an archeologist himself. The series are also immensely catching with characters that are larger than life but still very humane and interesting. Steven Erikson is wildly talented and he subtly subverts many of the tropes of fantasy in not so obvious ways while still bringing an awesome fantasy beyond anything I've ever read.
When I pitch it, I usually say it's the best from The Lord of The Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire mixed with anime-worthy battles and it changes you as a person. Okay, this was an obvious fanboy rant, but such is the life of the fanboy. For many, as is mentioned by the author himself, the Malazan Book of The Fallen is not their cup of tea, but if you are willing to trust the author and go along it will be a journey you wont ever forget.

I also support The Hyperion Cantos (the first two books) which is not just a great sci-fi, but just a really great story.

Ender's Game and The Kingkiller Chronicles are also really great.

haha you sold me with this line -

''When I pitch it, I usually say it's the best from The Lord of The Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire mixed with anime-worthy battles and it changes you as a person.''

Win, win, win.

thank-you, sir!

 

[Psykoma]

I really liked the Cleric Quintet and Demonwars Saga, both by Salvatore.

 

[Azahul]

Anytime anyone asks me to recommend them a book series, two spring to mind. The first has been mentioned quite a few times so far (Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels). The other seems to be virtually unknown. So, here is my recommendation:

Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series. They're brilliant books about a world where Dracula won (first one written in 1992, so long before vampires became lame), went on to marry Queen Victoria, and turned her and a good chunk of England's population into vampires.

The first book, Anno Dracula, is set in 1888 in Whitechapel, London. A murderer, at first known as the Silver Knife, then later as Jack the Ripper, has begun killing vampire prostitutes in a series of gruesome murders. With unrest against Dracula's rule rising, a member of the Diogenes Club (an organisation of secret agents, more or less, run by Mycroft Holmes) is sent to investigate. The stories blend real historical figures and characters from the author's own imagination with characters from Victorian literature and popular vampire stories (Count Orlock is put in charge of the Tower of London, Doctors Jekyll and Moreau are the coroners in the Jack the Ripper investigations, Professor Moriarty turns up at one point as part of a criminal alliance, a Chinese Hopping Vampire is used as an assassin, the list goes on), which creates this amazing cast carrying out their investigation (and murders) in this dark, grim world. It's hard to get across how amazing this story is. There's political dissent, sword duels, murder investigations, intrigue and plots and double crosses replete with great characters and a fascinating world.

The second book, if anything, gets even better. It's called The Bloody Red Baron, and it's about the shapeshifting German flying ace the Baron Mannfred von Richtofen, who at the height of World War I has made a name for himself by shapeshifting into a giant bat-thing and tackling planes in mid-air. Edgar Allan Poe, living in exile in Austria after being on the losing side in the American Civil War, is contracted to undertake the task of penning the Red Baron's biography, while on the other side of the trenches the Condors (a group of the top pilots for the allies, all vampires) are tasked with bringing the Baron down. Of course, if you get an upset stomach reading Anno Dracula (which is a pretty gory book), don't even touch The Bloody Red Baron. Terribly gruesome, but a bloody good story (pun unintended). Elder vampires fighting World War I era tanks on the ground, vampire pilots dueling in the air, massive battles as the Germans make their final push into France in 1918 meeting the Allied forces head on. The fact that it has Churchill sucking a rabbit dry of blood mid-way through a war council made me chuckle.

There's a third book, The Judgement of Tears, which is pretty awesome as well. Not quite as good as The Bloody Red Baron, but it's a damned good read regardless. It's a bit more sedate than the others, but there's still murder and plots and all kinds of fun stuff. They're great books, with a really novel take on vampires despite the fact that it holds fairly true to the way vampires are presented in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

The books were out of print for a good long while, but to celebrate the fourth book in the series (Johnny Alucard) being released this year they're being rereleased, so hopefully they'll be available electronically as well.

 

[Dragonpit]

What is this blasphemy!? All these fantasy stories and not one mention of the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini!? Absurd. It's an interesting series. Very fresh, though he just unleashed the last installment. I definitely recommend it.

 

[Azahul]

What is this blasphemy!? All these fantasy stories and not one mention of the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini!? Absurd. It's an interesting series. Very fresh, though he just unleashed the last installment. I definitely recommend it.

No. Bad bad bad. Anyone that rips the dragons out from Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Riders of Pern series, the magic from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Quartet, and the plot straight from Star Wars (well, this is going from the three books I've read, haven't read the fourth one) doesn't deserve to be acknowledged.

Instead, recommend the people he's been virtually plagiarising. They're all much better authors (well, movies as well).

 

[eternal-chaplain]

It is a bit more juvenile than most things I have read, but The Edge Chronicles is not bad at all.

Considering you want something to spend a lot of time on: the series consists of three complete trilogies set in a fantasy world that takes a turn towards Steampunk in the last trilogy as technology begins to replace the world's failing form of magic.

Now I have often had issues with series as long as 9 books in the mindset that you're thematics are going to become pretty convoluted when it takes three trilogies to get to the damned conclusion of it all. But it is for that reason one can only really appreciate the bare writing of the plot & characters, which are memorable regardless.

 

[scnj]

Um. My personal favourite is The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It's about a man called Roland, the last Gunslinger in a dying world, searching for the mythical Dark Tower. The tone falls somewhere between the Sergio Leone westerns, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and post-apocalyptic fiction.

I will note that while the common consensus is that the first four books are spectacular, opinions are very much divided on the final three. I enjoyed the whole lot, but there is a sudden tonal shift.

Oh yeah, it's seven books in total, with an eighth coming next year set in the short gap between books four and five.

 

[Giftfromme]

Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov

 

[Roganzar]

What is this blasphemy!? All these fantasy stories and not one mention of the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini!? Absurd. It's an interesting series. Very fresh, though he just unleashed the last installment. I definitely recommend it.

Its Star Wars. Star Wars with Dragons. I liked the first book but after reading the second one I completely lost interest.

I'd like to recommend the Shinara books by Terry Brooks. First one is a bit dry and they can get a little redundant as the stories follow the same formula from time to time. However, there are some really good characters and stories in them. These are definately good reads.

I would also highly recommend the Wayfarer Redemption series by Sara Douglas. These are not on par with Lord of the Rings or Song of Fire and Ice books, but I really, really enjoyed them. Sara Douglas has a brilliantly crafted world. Along with very good characters that you can actually get invested in. Also in the same world are the Darkglass Mountain trilogy and Beyond the Hanging Wall and Threshold.

 

[Mugen]

It is a bit more juvenile than most things I have read, but The Edge Chronicles is not bad at all.

Considering you want something to spend a lot of time on: the series consists of three complete trilogies set in a fantasy world that takes a turn towards Steampunk in the last trilogy as technology begins to replace the world's failing form of magic.

Now I have often had issues with series as long as 9 books in the mindset that you're thematics are going to become pretty convoluted when it takes three trilogies to get to the damned conclusion of it all. But it is for that reason one can only really appreciate the bare writing of the plot & characters, which are memorable regardless.

hmmm seems this series hasnt been released on kindle yet, bummer. i was intrigued by the concept of sky pirates in a world above a bottomless pit (so wikipedia tells me).

thanks anyway, i will keep an eye out

 

[3AM]

I agree with those that recommended Asimov's Foundation series. Those novels may be have been written decades ago but they still read really fresh. And thanks for reminding me of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun - I just don't see him mentioned often but those are great. I'm gonna add Vernor Vinge to the pile. He's got ideas that are so innovative and exciting. He has a couple series: Realtime Series has The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime. Zones of Thought series is my absolute favorite: A Fire Upon The Deep, A Deepness in the Sky and the newly added Children of the Sky. And don't forget Rainbow's End - so good.

Thanks for all the great suggestions in this thread.

 

[Shock and Awe]

I never really read any fantasy, but as far as Sci-Fi goes the Foundation Trilogy is definitely some of the best out there, though it does have that 50s fixation on atomic power.